


Pieces of Possibility

by pushkin666



Category: Lewis - Fandom
Genre: Case Fic, M/M, Pre-Slash, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-26
Updated: 2010-07-26
Packaged: 2017-10-10 19:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pushkin666/pseuds/pushkin666
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A case reminds Lewis that sometimes you need to take a chance before it's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pieces of Possibility

**   
PHOTOGRAPH   
**

It's the photograph that does it. It's sent by the killer and on looking at it Lewis folds into himself. He's seen pictures of the girl that her parents have shown him. She was a pretty child, but this…this is not pretty. It's grotesque and she looks so very pitiful. Alone in his office, silent with anger and grief, Lewis allows himself a moment of weakness and drops his head into his hands.

He's so tired. They've been working hard on this case and they still don't seem to be any further along than when the girl's mutilated body was found.

Christ he hates cases involving children. Even when they find the killer, and they will, they'll have failed, because she's still dead. Nothing can ever change that. Her parents, and all of them, will have to live with it.

Lewis tenses as his office door opens and he looks up. It's Hathaway though and he feels himself relaxing again, in a way that he only can when James is there.

"Sir?" Hathaway sounds concerned.

Lewis realises his feelings must still be showing on his face. He shakes his head: "Nothing, it's nothing. Just this case is getting to me a bit."

"Well," Hathaway picks up the photograph and grimaces at the image, "that's not really surprising." He grips Robbie's shoulder and for a moment Lewis wants to lean back against him, but it's a comfort he can't allow himself right now.

"We'll find him, Sir. You know that." James sounds so earnest and Robbie tries to smile, although he knows the expression doesn't reach his eyes.

"Yeah. We'll find him."

 

**   
PHONE CALL   
**

"Hathaway. Where the hell are you?" Lewis is angry and he doesn't bother to hide the tone from his voice.

The awaited phone call has finally come through from Hathaway. Lewis has been trying to get hold of him for the last couple of hours, but his mobile has been turned off. His sergeant has the habit of doing his own thing, ignoring regulations and following hunches. He's dedicated, but sometimes he just doesn't think about his own safety, and that worries Lewis.

All he can hear now is deep stuttered breathing and then Hathaway speaks: "Cooper…" he gasps. "I'm at Cooper's house. He's the killer. You need to go after him. I…"

His voice trails off and he's silent for a moment, Lewis starts to panic, but then Hathaway continues: "Robbie. You need to be careful. He's got a knife."

"James. What did he do?" Lewis grips the phone tightly, waiting for the response.

"He ... stabbed m-me" Hathaway stutters, his voice hitching somewhere between pain and incredulity, and he sounds impossibly young in that moment.

Lewis feels rage and fear building up inside him. "How badly are you injured? Where did he stab you," he asks, praying silently that it's not too bad.

"Shoulder." It sounds like it's hard for him to talk.

Lewis grits his teeth. Now is not the time for recriminations. That will come later. He picks up his jacket and car keys, and leaves the house. "Okay," he tells him. "Just hold something against it and try and stay still. I'll get an ambulance to you." Hathaway is silent and then he thanks him quietly before ending the call.

 

**   
PRINCIPLE   
**

Lewis curbs his initial instinct to go to Hathaway and phones an ambulance instead. His job now is to catch the killer, and besides, the ambulance will get to James faster than he could.

He's a man of principles. One of those is to never let the bad guy get away. There's a new principle as well though; nobody gets away with hurting Hathaway. Cooper was one of their initial suspects, but he'd seemed to have a cast iron alibi for the time the girl disappeared. He wonders what new information Hathaway had come across that led him to Cooper's house.

Robbie is only grateful that Cooper didn't have a firearm. Child killers usually liked the hands-on approach. For them violence was expressive, not a means to an end but an end in itself. Firearms were impersonal, tools to get the job done. People like Cooper wanted to savour the experience. The little girl had been cut up. It had obviously taken her a long time to die.

Cooper must have panicked when Hathaway arrived; lashed out and ran.

Lewis calls the details in to the station, tells them that Hathaway has been injured and that he has an idea where Cooper might be headed. Cooper has a workshop rented in his name and Lewis has a hunch that that's where the killer has gone.

He asks for backup, something that Hathaway had failed to do. He shakes his head. He could kill James for this himself. Getting stabbed, of all the stupid things.... If he'd only called Lewis, asked him to go with him, they might already have Cooper in custody and Hathaway wouldn't have been hurt.

 

**   
PROTEST   
**

"Sir, you can't go in. We're only allowing family in at present."

Lewis grinds his teeth in frustration, wanting to protest against the edict. He needs to see Hathaway, but the nurse isn't letting him in. She might be young but she's standing firm.

"Look," he tries again. "He's my partner. I need to make sure that he's okay. "

It's been hours since Cooper was arrested and booked in. It's late and Lewis is tired. He needs a shave and a shower and he really should have just gone home, but he couldn't wait any longer. He wanted to see Hathaway first, and had come straight to the hospital, rather than going home first.

"Oh," she says, and then for some unfathomable reason she blushes. "I didn't realise. Look Sir, it is meant to be family only, but, well I can understand why you'd want to see your boyfriend. You can go in, but don't be too long. It's against the rules, but sometimes you have to bend them," she says with a wink. "

Boyfriend. Robbie stares at her for a moment, but doesn't correct her. If it means him getting into see James then he'll go with that. All he needs is to see that James is okay and then he can go home. And maybe even sleep without having to resort to whisky to rid himself of the images in his mind.

 

**   
POSSIBILITY   
**

Lewis closes the door and turns to look at his partner. James is lying on the bed, leaning back against the pillows. He's shirtless with bandages covering the stab wound in his shoulder. Robbie makes a conscious effort not to stare at his bare chest, looking at his face instead. James is pale but he's grinning at him.

"Boyfriend huh?"

Robbie can feel himself blushing. Damn, he hadn't realised James had heard that. "Oh be quiet, "he says, matching his grin. "I said partner. She was the one who assumed I meant something else."

He sits down at the side of the bed. "And you," he says. "I should be hauling you over the coals for going off on your own like that, you daft bugger. What were you thinking? You could have been killed." And that's something he's been trying not to think about until now. How differently this could have turned out.

James reaches out and takes his hand. "I'm okay Robbie." He's called Robbie by his given name before, but this time... well, this time it just sounds different.

Lewis swallows; his mouth dry as he looks up. The expression on James' face is some complicated mixture of hope and sincerity.

James rubs his thumbnail over Robbie's hand and he shivers slightly at the touch.

"So," James continues. "I liked what she said. Liked what she called you. And, you know we keep avoiding this conversation, have been for a while now, but Robbie…" He clears his throat, the sound audible in the room. "Robbie, do you think there might be the possibility of us being what she called us?" He sounds uncertain now and Lewis squeezes his hand.

The time for hiding his feelings is over; it was the moment he received the call from James. When he'd told Robbie he'd been stabbed. Life was too short for not taking this chance.

"Yeah," he says. "I think there is."

James' face lights up. He smiles, looks happy and relieved.

"But," Robbie adds, stern. "Not until you're out of here. And if you ever do something as stupid as this again I'll kill you myself. Understood?"

"It's a deal," James says, lacing their fingers together and holding on.

~Finis~


End file.
